There is now a new article in Time Magazine which suggests that the prosecution’s scientific witnesses who wanted to argue for forgery of the inscription, or at least part of it, in fact have misread the evidence, which now is said to support the authenticity of the inscription and the ancient nature of the patina in its letters. I am not competent to assess this argument about isotopes
(see the article here http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1920720,00.html)
but I am competent enough to say that it appears to me that the prosecution’s case is falling apart, not least because they have produced no further evidence of the conspiracy charge that there were a lot of forgeries perpetrated by Deutsch and Golan.
Stay tuned to further developments that deserves to be a prime time soap opera— I’m thinking it should be called ‘As the Stomach Turns’, or perhaps ‘My Life in Ruins’.
posted September 7, 2009 at 4:19 am
9,000+ pages of testimony. Hundreds more pages of evidence.
posted September 7, 2009 at 6:09 am
Sorry, but Oden Golan strikes me as a complete fraud.
posted September 7, 2009 at 6:29 am
From this book review at Time
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1850111,00.html
“An analysis of the patina also revealed the presence of Tel Aviv tap water. In his defense, Golan claims it was because his mother occasionally scrubbed the ossuary with soap and water, not realizing its historical value.”
That’s what you do with spectacular finds like the ossuary, have your mom wash it with soap and water. I mean, c’mon.
posted September 7, 2009 at 7:52 am
Hi Quiddity:
In fact she did clean it, as she testified. It was sitting in his living room for years, along with hundreds of other pieces of antiquity he has collected. Even his former girl friend testified to seeing the box in his house with the full inscription. You need to know the full story before you make a judgment.
BW3
posted September 7, 2009 at 12:27 pm
All that the presence of Tel Aviv tap water proves, is that something at one point came into contact with Tel Aviv tap water. . .. . Any further conclusions one wants to draw from that regarding HOW the water came into contact would be speculative.
posted September 7, 2009 at 1:51 pm
We know more or less the date in which the ossuary was cleaned by his mother according to Golan and BAR tested material showing that indeed it had been cleaned. So we called the co. that makes the detergent and it was not even on the mkt during the period that she was said to have cleaned it.
posted September 7, 2009 at 3:01 pm
Thanks for this Achi. However my understanding is that the cleanser in question was a common or generic one, with the same ingredients as in various other cleansers that certainly did exist in the 70s. Furthermore, Golan says it was cleaned more recently as well, which is to say it was cleaned more than once.
BW3
posted September 7, 2009 at 6:31 pm
Achi, my mum has cleaners in the cupboard that are no longer on the market.